Canton history lost. 65-year-old downtown Kullman diner site demolished for parking lot
A former downtown Canton diner was demolished Tuesday at 920 Tuscarwas St W next to the Towne Manor Motel. Ed Balint
From the Canton Repository: CANTON, Ohio − Angela Otto stood about 20 yards away from the destruction of a childhood memory and a piece of the city’s past.
The employee of Towne Manor Motel recalled when she used to go to the former diner as a child for breakfast nearly a half century ago.
“I had my first Shirley Temple here,” the 49-year-old Otto said of the diner site next to the motel. “Me and my mother used to come here for breakfast. I’ll never forget that.”
After 63 years, Petey’s Bungalow in Oak Lawn prepares for last supper
The iconic sign outside Petey’s Bungalow Restaurant and Lounge can be seen at the corner of 95th Street and Kostner Avenue. The restaurant, which opened in 1961, will close after Tuesday, Oct. 15. (Photo by Joe Boyle)
From The Reporter: After 63 years, a popular Oak Lawn, IL, restaurant will close its doors for the last time.
Petey’s Bungalow Restaurant and Lounge, 4401 W. 95th St., will cease operations after Tuesday, Oct. 15. The restaurant, a local fixture known as a classic supper club, has been at the same location since 1961.
In a Facebook post, owner Petey Kattos announced that the restaurant will close. He said opening the restaurant was a dream come true when he and his wife, Mary, first started it.
Mickey’s Diner: Customers surprised as iconic St. Paul restaurant reopens
From Fox9: ST. PAUL, Minn. – It was supposed to be a soft opening for an iconic diner in St. Paul. But when word got out that Mickey’s Diner was back open, the news spread quickly, leaving the diner packed with customers.
Mickey’s Diner on West 7th Street has sat empty for more than four years. The diner, which first opened in 1939 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, is known for its compact space, a feature that has only added to its legendary status.
The iconic restaurant, which shut down in 2020 due to COVID, quietly reopened its doors, and owners described it as more of a “soft launch.”
Historic Howard Johnson’s Rego Park Mural Rediscovered
Award-winning 1,000-seat Howard Johnson’s, Rego Park by Chief Architect Joseph G Morgan
From the Forest Hills Times: In a rare turn of events, a historically significant 39-foot Art Deco mural by the notable French artist Andre Durenceau, which was thought to have been simultaneously demolished at Rego Park’s award-winning Howard Johnson’s restaurant and reception destination in 1974, has been rediscovered. Not long after the mural’s initial rescue by preservationist Hugh Kelly, now 90, it would end up in his Weston, Massachusetts home. Fifty years later, this columnist spearheaded the rescue and transport of its three large mural canvases back to New York on September 22. It meant traveling in a sprinter van 202.6 miles from Forest Hills to Weston, followed by 242.7 miles to its storage, east of Queens. Award-winning cinematographer Alan McIntyre came along to film the preservation initiative. Next in line is its conceived restoration and installation in a museum, ideally close to its roots in Queens.
Featuring beautiful maidens and bold horses jumping through ribbon-like hoops, the mural once initiated distinctiveness and fantasy for patrons on the Howard Johnson’s spiral staircase that dominated an elegant two-story story rotunda, leading to rooms for banquets and wedding breakfasts.
Mangled Bob’s Big Boy statue in Downey gets Halloween makeover
The Big Boy in Downey (Robert Garrova / LAist)
From LAist: The Bob’s Big Boy statue in Downey that had its hairdo ripped off in a car crash has become even more horrifying for Halloween.
Is he Frankenstein’s monster? A Zombie? You can be the judge. The beloved mascot has been painted green, with pink “brains” where the top of his head once was.
Residents in Downey were shocked after a high-speed car crash damaged a Bob’s Big Boy statue last month.
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater Sports Glorious New Neon
Toot the Clown atop the new marquee at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. Photo by Chris Nichols
From Los Angeles Magazine: Theater marquees have always been designed to attract your attention and get you to come inside and L.A.’s newest is one of the flashiest. A glorious new neon confection was unveiled at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater on Sunday by actor Jason Segel who joined with the puppets, their operators and thousands of Highland Park neighbors to celebrate.
An all-day party that spilled out into the street brought the inside out with marionettes dancing up and down York Boulevard amidst the buzz of kids and vendors and dessert carts. The buzziest new sign in town arrived, in large part, thanks to a big contribution from the Perenchio Foundation, which also awarded grants to dozens of arts organizations from the Debbie Allen Dance Academy to the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Perenchio was a talent agent and TV producer who sold Spanish-language broadcaster Univision for $13.7 billion in 2007.